What NYC Was Like the Last Time the Knicks Won The NBA Championship

The NY Knickerbockers are the NBA Champions following a 53 year drought. I’d like to spot light what the city was like 53 years ago. Given this 53-year reflection, I started to think about where I was and what real estate values 53 years ago. It was 1973, and my parents purchased the home I grew up in, a lovely colonial in North Flushing for $35,000. Interest rates were around 10% back then too. I will touch upon what homes are selling for now later in this piece.

First, let’s look back at what NYC was like 53 years ago and how dramatically it has transformed.

But first we celebrate and congratulate the NY Knicks on their historic win. Like NYC itself 53 years ago, when people thought it was over for the city, some didn’t believe and left, those that stayed know the strength and resilience of the city, much like our NY Knicks!

NYC in 1973: Gritty, Broken and Alive

The NYC of 1973 was a city on the edge. It was gritty, chaotic, creative and often dangerous. I was just a kid and loved to take a graffiti covered #7 train from downtown Flushing to the last stop in NYC, Times Square. There my brother, cousin and friends and I would spend the day exploring the city. 42nd Street was electric, dangerous, exciting and dirty but we loved it. Today tourists embrace the Disnefied new Times Square.

At the time, the city was sliding toward a financial catastrophe that would fully arrive by 1975, when NY teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Mayor Abe Beame slashed the city workforce: police officers, firefighters and teachers were all let go in massive numbers. Crime surged and neighborhoods that are now among the most expensive in the world: SoHo, Tribeca and the Lower East Side were largely abandoned industrial zones, and homes to struggling artists and very little else. Forget getting a taxi at night downtown, after dark it could be a ghost town and quite dangerous. The subway was unreliable, and you didn’t think of taking it after certain times at night. In other boroughs, like the Bronx, entire blocks were burning, literally, and with a slashed police force, crime was rampant.

And yet, the city pulsed with energy. Jazz and funk echoed from Harlem, Broadway was experiencing a creative renaissance. Off Broadway theater exploded with vitality. Some of my favorite theater experiences were in the Off & Off Off Broadway performances, I had never experienced anything like the performances and venues before. It was thrilling, new and oh so creative.

The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, were completed that year and were the world’s tallest buildings. I can still vividly remember a class trip to the top of the WTC and the excitement and fear I felt being that high above the city.

But it was also a time of a mass exodus from the city. New Yorkers were fleeing due to high unemployment, crime and trash. The middle class were moving out to the boroughs. Homes were affordable there, the areas were safer and cleaner and offered good public schools in areas like Flushing, Bayside, Park Slope and Pelham.

But many New Yorkers stayed. I have many friends and family that endured the crime and grittiness of the city and purchased brownstones in the ‘70’s for btw $50-75K, a lot of money back then. Compared to what these homes have sold for recently, today’s’ values are upwards of $5M.

For those who stayed, 1973 had a particular electricity. The Knicks were in the championship. The Knicks, featuring, Willis Reed, Walt (Clyde) Frazier, Bill Bradley (my best friend’s favorite player) and Dave DeBusschere beat the Los Angeles Lakers 102-93 to win the NBA Championship in five games, the city, like today, was united and forgot all its troubles.

What did a Home Cost in 1973?

My parents purchased our 3 bed/2 ba Colonial in North Flushing for $35K. My cousin’s family purchased a 4 story Brownstone in Carrol Garden, Brooklyn for $14K. My mentor purchased her Brownstone on W 81st Street for $72K. New York real estate in 1973 was, by today’s standards, almost impossibly cheap. With all the issues plaquing the city, real estate was unappealing to many buyers.

Manhattan rental apartments, even in decent neighborhoods, were renting for btw $100-$300 per month.

Property values stagnated through much of the decade before international buyers, seeing the potential and noticing the value, began purchasing Manhattan real estate as the city climbed out of bankruptcy in the late 1970’s.

New York City in 2026: Transformed, Expensive and Still Electric

With the whole city cheering is on their NY Knicks, the most unifying sports event in recent history, the city is almost unrecognizable from the one that celebrated in 1973.

Today the city’s population is roughly 8.5 million residents. One of my favorite lines from Fran Lebowitz is “No one can afford to live in New York. Yet, eight million people do. How do we do this? We don’t know!”

Another from Crocodile Dundee “NYC Home to 8 million people” “That’s incredible. Imagine eight million people all wanting to live together. Yeah, New York must be the friendliest place on earth.”

Today SoHo and Tribeca, once abandoned industrial lofts, are now among the most expensive neighborhoods in the country. We see gentrification in areas once deemed too unsafe, South Bronx, BedStuy, now with property values never before seen.

Today, the city has attracted a whole new wave of business & buyers, not even imaginable in 1973, like finance, technology, media and creative industries.

What a Home Costs in 2026

The contrast in property values between 1973 and today is simply staggering. Those that had the tenacity and vision to stay, well, their investment really paid off.

The median home sale price in Manhattan is in the $1.3M range with the average sale price around $2M. Condos have a median price of close to $2M, and co ops around $850K. In areas like Tribeca, price per square foot in prime areas, run btw $2500-$3500.

Across the five boroughs, the average home value is around $900K. That two family Brooklyn home which sold for $40K in 1973 would sell in the $4-$5M range and some, depending on neighborhood or renovation, much higher than that.

In fact, in my hometown in North Flushing, homes sell in the $1.5M range.

The More Things Change

Fifty three years is a long time for New Yorkers to wait for their Knicks to bring home the Championship. The city certainly looked very different then, but the unity amongst New Yorkers and electricity in the air is the same. The city that will crown the new Champions is one of the most expensive, most visited and most powerful cities on earth. No one is fleeing now, instead they flock.

Everywhere you look someone is sporting a Knicks jersey, a hat or wearing the orange & blue.

As a native New Yorker, I love this city, always have, from the seedy ‘70’s to the electric lights of 2026.

Today we crown the new NBA Champion NY Knicks; 53 years was a long time to wait, but the wait was made oh so much sweeter with this incredible, historic win!

Just like NYC, people didn’t believe this Knick team could win, and just like NYC the Knicks prove, we can be down but we always rise up!!

Let’s Go Knicks!

Go New York, Go New York Go New York, GO!!!